"Tua solicitude é pior do que a cólera": o romance machadiano "Helena" e a tensão dissolutiva das raízes arcaicas no Brasil oitocentista

Abstract

In the eighteenth Brazil, with dissolutive archaic roots,
rustic civilization elements entangled with modern ones:
patrimonialism and the cordial man. The cordial man is
a patrimonialist that acts according to the values of their
heart (love as well as hatred; whim, in summary).
Through this prism I intend to analyze Helena, observing
in a character like Estacio, for instance, an archaic
man holding a modern function. This happens because
in the context represented in the novel binomials like
“slave owner” and “enlightened”, “courteous” and “violent”
were not exclusionary.
This approach is based on studies of Brazil’s interpretation
by Sergio Buarque de Holanda, Antonio Candido,
and Roberto Schwarz.